Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Indonesian Ministry of Health is still investigating the link between Avian Flu or H5N1 and the deaths of dozens of poultry in South Kalimantan (South Kalimantan).
“In South Kalimantan, we are checking whether the variant is really Bird Flu,” said Indonesian Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin at the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK) Building, Jakarta, Tuesday.
He said the check was needed to ascertain the source of transmission of the disease, as well as the mitigation efforts that needed to be carried out.
“If later it is true (bird flu), what we have checked is the transmission is not from human to human, but from animals,” he said.
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According to Budi, the Ministry of Health has collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture to carry out surveillance of every case of poultry death in the area.
If the number of cases is significant, said Budi, the Ministry of Agriculture will coordinate with the Ministry of Health for efforts to overcome them.
“We have issued a letter of cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that if there are indications of significant poultry death, we will have to coordinate with us later, because then it can be transmitted to humans,” he said.
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According to Budi, the recent case of bird flu in Cambodia was caused by animal-to-human transmission.
“Until now what has happened in Cambodia, all bird flu transmission has occurred from animals to humans, not from humans to humans. Hopefully it also does not occur from humans to humans,” he said.
Budi added, the current focus of the Ministry of Health’s supervision is on incidents of significant animal deaths.
“We have identified animals in a number of areas. If a lot of birds die, we chase them. That’s what we still have double check with South Kalimantan, is the variant Avian Flu,” he said.
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